Around the World in 180 Days with D and N: Petra!!

The first thing that struck us on arriving at our hotel in Petra was the cool and windy weather. We'd left Aqaba, 120 miles to the south and at 20 feet above sea level, driven along the desert at sea level and below, and found ourselves in a location at about 4,600 feet, so shouldn't have been a surprise that we'd left the beach weather behind.

The next quite wonderful surprise was Petra itself. We walked down from our hotel to the entrance the next morning, bought a two-day ticket (overly-ambitious, as it turned out) and walked down another half a mile to the beginning of the Siq, a narrow split in the rocks leading for another mile and a quarter to Petra's most elaborate ruin, the Treasury.

Petra was an ancient Nabataean city. It contains some extraordinary ruins. The Nabataeans grew wealthy controlling the major caravan routes and extracting tribute from the traders plying the incense and other goods from China and Arabia into Southern Europe. Their influence was in part due to their ability to control the water resources in the area. The water supply to Petra was quite sophisticated, relying on an elaborate system of conduits bringing water from the Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses). It was believed these springs began when Moses struck the rock and brought forth water. It flowed to their city via a pipe system insulated to prevent evaporation. The site was known in the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader eras but was unknown to the Western world until its discovery by a Swiss archaelogist (Johann Burckhardt) in 1812.

The Treasury was the first of many of Petra's delights, hewn into a sandstone cliff and amazingly preserved to this day. We walked over 6 miles through the ruins and back through the Siq, shunning the offers of carriage, donkey, horse and camel rides but deciding that one day was enough for our ancient bones in this wonderful ancient setting.